Focaccia

Even though I haven't baked this today I have started it already, so I feel justified in posting this, my signature recipe. Originally an Italian bread made while the ovens were heating up (it is cooked cooler than most Italian breads), it has acheived worldwide renown. I have made a few adaptations over time, not least of which is the overnight technique. This really is one of the easiest (and tastiest) overnight breads I have adapted, especially if your oven has a timer function; I time mine to be hot when I get up and then just take the breads out of the fridge, chuck some olive oil on top and pop them in the oven while I get ready. It can take a while to cool down, but if you really do leave it to the last minute in the mornings it can be wrapped in paper warm, taken to work and even eaten on its own it is so flavoured.

The recipe is detailed enough that it shouldn't cause many people problems (still some updating to do, but I don't think anyone will be downloading it before I get a chance). I will say that it requires quite a bit of kneading to acheive a smooth dough, because it is quite a dry mix, but as this is all done the night before in most cases I don't find it too tiring.

It is possible, and maybe more traditional, just to roll out the dough and put it onto baking trays as a sort of rough circle, but I have found it makes a better bread and is less prone to crust problems if it is enclosed in a tin. Sandwich tins (as in the recipe) are the tins usually used for making sponge cakes and the ones with a removable base are best as they save you having to tip an oil covered loaf upside down. The sides encourage it to rise by containing the dough, making for a softer and looser crumb.

I'll get to troubleshooting sometime soon, when I shall go into more detail about 'crust problems', so if you have any questions leave them in the comments and I shall hopefully be able to answer them.

Till next time.

Grow Your Own

Today I just baked my standard bread mentioned previously (see 'A Simple Bread'), but I have recently started using a natural leaven in the place of yeast. This acts in the same way as yeast, but relies on naturally occurring yeasts and bacteria to provide the gases that raise bread dough. They are all harmless, and the baking of the bread kills them all anyway, so there is no need to worry about them. They also impart a distinct flavour to the bread.

They act more slowly and are in a less concentrated state, so when using it in the overnight simple bread recipe there is no need to put them in the fridge, and 100g / 4oz of leaven should be used with 225g / 9oz of water to provide the right consistency.

I've just set another batch up this evening (so I don't know if there will be a post tomorrow), and now it is late, so I shall leave it at that and encourage you to experiment for yourself.

Be busy baking.

Bread Making Machines

Another day of no baking (more freezer stocks consumed), so I thought I would post a short discussion on the merits of bread making machines. I had one of these devices bought for me by my mother-in-law, with the best of intentions, and I know a number of people who own them. I personally feel the bread baked in a bread maker is a poor, but easy, substitute for homemade bread.

The defects in the loaves, such as the whole in the middle and limited crust, made me unwilling to actually put in the time required to become proficient at baking using a bread maker (a skill in itself). I prefer to use the breadmaker as a handy domestic kneading machine, as I alluded to in my ciabatta post, and for this purpose it is certainly useful. Most breads can be adapted to have some, if not all, of the kneading done in a machine, with the shaping and baking done in a conventional manner.

I have adapted recipes that fit in with my lifestyle, and hopefully proved that it is possible to adapt breadmaking to fit around you by changing the temperature it is risen at, the size of the loaves and both the type and quantity of raising agent used. An example of this is the overnight ciabatta recipe, which shows how Saturday's ciabatta post can be simply altered to fit my daily schedule.

I hope this encourages you to get in there and bake, it's making me want to.

Sticky Ginger Cake

Still cooling on a rack in my kitchen is one of my favourite cakes; the sticky ginger cake. This recipe uses the 'melted together' sponge method which, if you've never made it before, makes a deliciously moist and sticky-topped sponge. The main points I would highlight for this recipe are: don't be shy with the ginger, if you like a bit of bite to your ginger cakes then don't be afraid to add a little more than stated; and leave it in a tin for a day to allow the sticky top to develop.

The link for the recipe is here, so download it now and add it to your regular baking schedule; you will not be disappointed.

Keep baking.

Ciabatta

Today, following yesterday's pizza making and with a ball of over-risen dough, I made two loaves of ciabatta. These two follow each other because, as with a few other Italian breads, ciabatta requires a starter to get the well developed dough that gives it its characteristic texture. The things to note about this dough is that it is very wet and difficult to work with; if you have a breadmaker (there will be a post in the near future outlining my opinion of these machines), then use that to knead the dough as it is much easier. Otherwise, just be prepared for a really wet dough and do all the kneading in the bowl. The other main point to note is that one has to be very careful not to knock the air out of the dough when transferring it to the baking tray, make sure the bowl it is in is well oiled and ease it out with a spatula.

Enough from me, I'm going to the pub, the recipe is here and, as I have made a few alterations to it as I have improved the method over time, it will suffice until I can upload a new copy to the same location. If you have dough left over from a pizza then you obviously start at the point after the starter has been prepared and left to rise (the time isn't especially important for that aspect).

Buona sera.

Pizza

So tonight I did as promised and made some delicious pizzas for myself and my wife. Now I shall do my best to explain in writing how I have achieved, over time, something approximating a thin crust pizza in the traditional northern Italian style (I'm never quite satisfied!).

The first thing is to mention the required equipment, as it is not possible to make perfect pizzas with imperfect conditions. The oven is of utmost importance; as most of us don't have wood burning pizza ovens in our kitchens (or even gardens) we need to use the next best thing, and that is a stone and electric 'fan-assisted grill' or a gas oven. If your electric oven does not have a fan-assisted grill then you can use a conventional oven, but the results will be considerably poorer. The stone can be any pressed paving slab made or cut to fit the oven shelf. The reason this is important is that pizzas need to be cooked at high heat from below and above simultaneously; a fresh pizza base will not sit on a normal oven shelf. The next important item is a platten to transfer the pizza from the work surface to the oven (as I found out the hard way). The simplest and cheapest option I have found is a thin piece of wood with a loose cover of baking paper.

So on to the dough. The pizza dough is so simple there is no need for a detailed recipe. One basically uses twice as much flour as water and aims for 200g of dough per pizza. For example, for the two pizzas I made this evening I used 400g of flour and 200g of water (measure your water on a weighing scale, it's so much more accurate than any measuring jug). Some of you may have noticed that that makes 600g, but I always make an extra portion of pizza dough as a starter for ciabatta (can anyone guess what my blog will be about tomorrow?!). To the flour should be added about 1/4 tsp of salt per pizza and to the water 2g of yeast per pizza; mix the two combinations separately and then add the water/yeast mix to a well in the flour and work into a dough. This is going to be quite a stiff dough and the best pizza is made by making it slightly softer e.g. using an extra 15g of water per pizza. Knead it well on a clean work surface until it is smooth, divide into 200g balls and then leave to rise for 3-4 hrs, or until doubled in size, in individual oiled and cling film-covered bowls.

The oven needs to be turned on early and as hot as it will go; I usually leave mine on for about an hour before cooking to warm up the stone sufficiently. The dough should also be left for a second rise, so shortly after turning on the oven (15-20mins) fill a baking dish with flour, carefully remove the dough ball from its bowl and place it in the flour; flattening and turning with the palm of the hand until it is too big for the dish. Then transfer it to a well-floured work surface and with both hands working palms down and against each other, stretch it out into an even circle, turning as you go. This takes a bit of getting used to, and I had the benefit of a visit to a pizzeria in Italy to see it done, but it is a lot easier than throwing it! Hopefully I shall be able to make some videos in the future so I can explain with a picture what would take a thousand words here.

Once this is done leave them on the floured surface, making sure there is plenty of flour underneath them (you really can't use too much), and prepare the toppings. What you use for toppings is entirely up to you, but for the tomato I have found that sieving tinned chopped tomatoes to remove the excess juice, adding a teaspoon of sugar, plenty of oregano and then giving them a blitz with a blender to mash the biggest chunks works really well.

All that is left now is to transfer the pizza dough to the platten by sliding the wood underneath while pulling the baking paper up the surface (start with the baking paper underneath the wood with only a flap folded over the end that is about to touch the pizza; a more advanced system with the same principle can be found here). Then add your favourite toppings, tomato first of course) and transfer to the stone in the reverse motion used to scoop up the dough (this takes some practice). The pizza will cook in about three minutes in a very hot electric oven, and it is an easy thing to be tempted to over cook them. Getting them out is much easier and can be done with a fish slice and an asbestos thumb.

I hope this has made some sense, as soon as I am able I shall make some videos to illustrate the process; in the meantime if you have any questions leave them in the comments section.

Happy Baking.

No Baking Today

I had a bit of a lie-in this morning as my wife didn't have to be up so early for work, and I therefore didn't do any baking. This doesn't mean I had to go without bread though, and the reason behind this is the subject of today's post.

As I said yesterday, I had made my staple bread recipe in the form of baps and, as there were some left over, I froze the rest. I have found that if one cuts the rolls as if to fill them and then puts them back together and freezes them on the same morning as baking them, then they keep perfectly well. To make them into sandwiches all one has to do is take them out of the freezer, split them along the cut and make the sandwiches with the bread frozen. As long as they are well wrapped and there is some delay between making and eating, they will be perfectly edible and still superior to shop-bought varieties.

For those of you who are rather cynical about this practice: give it a try. Some blind experiments on my ever available wife have proven it really is difficult to tell the difference.

Tomorrow I shall be baking pizza and, though not for the faint-hearted or those without the correct equipment, I shall post a detailed description (i.e. long) on how I have achieved a pizza that makes my Italian in-laws despair of pizzerias in their own country.

A Simple Bread

Today I made my standard bread by the overnight recipe. This probably means nothing to you, so I think I shall have to do some explaining first; the only problem is where to start.

The most basic breads are a simple combination of flour, salt, liquid (usually water) and a raising agent (usually yeast). Yeasted, or leavened, breads are made in stages. First all the ingredients are mixed together and the mixture is worked by stretching and folding. This strengthens the dough by getting the proteins in the flour to form strings; an easily visible effect when kneading fresh dough. The dough is then left to rise for a period of time, 'knocked back' by a second kneading process and left to rise again after being formed into the desired shape. After this baking fixes the dough and kills the yeast, and the bread is ready to be eaten.

This simple bread mix requires very little kneading and can be used to make almost any shape of loaf or roll required. I like to make mine as a granary dough, but it works equally well with other types of flour (no doubt we will get to that in later posts).

The overnight technique I have developed works by leaving the dough in the refrigerator overnight to slow the initial rising period and then forming the bread into rolls for a quick baking and cooling time. This means I can get up, form the bread into rolls, leave it to rise while I am having a shower, bake it in ten minutes and it is cool and ready for making sandwiches by the time I've finished my breakfast.

In order to save space in this blog (definately needed with posts like this one!) recipes will be available as downloadable .pdfs. This has the added advantage of not getting flour on your computer! So to start us off the basic recipe for rolls (baps to give them their original Scottish name) is here and then there is the slightly adapted overnight method.

I think that will do for this enormous post, I shall be back soon to talk about how this versatile recipe can be adapted to provide delicious bread for almost any occasion, and there will of course be some more advanced breads, cakes and puddings in the future. I hope you will keep popping back and I wish you much happy baking.

Coming Soon

My first post and there's not even going to be a recipe in it (innit). But rest assured, coming soon will be a host of downloadable recipes as I upload the things I'm baking at the time and the recipes you should try-before-you-die. In the meantime I'm going to try and get the hang of this new site and see if I can remember any HTML. Keep baking, B.